EU Citizens Will Need Work Permits to Reside in UK – Candidate for UK PM

EU citizens will need work permits to reside in the United Kingdom after the country’s leaving the bloc, Minister of State for Energy Andrea Leadsom, candidate for UK Prime Minister’s office, said.

LONDON (Sputnik) – Leadsom as well as Home Secretary Theresa May are holding campaigns to head the UK Conservative Party and to become the country’s new prime minister. The decision will be made by 150,000 Tory party members, who will vote to elect their next leader by mail until September.

"Once we leave the EU we will be back in control of immigration. People going on holiday or travelling on business or to collaborate on science will be able to do that but the right to reside and the right to work here will be under work permits," she told The Times in an interview.

Leadsom added that if she became a prime minister she would deprive new entrants of the right to stay in Great Britain.

"If I’m prime minister on September 9 what I would then say is people would still be able to come here under free movement until the day we leave the EU but those people who came here under free movement rules would then not be entitled to just remain here. We are a sovereign state. We can do what we want. Under free movement you don’t have to guarantee free movement for ever."

Acting Prime Minister David Cameron announced his resignation on June 24, a day after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union. He is expected to step down in October.